The known cable gland plates designed for several cables have a plate-type body with a set of holes, always one hole for one cable to be passed therethrough. The holes are covered or sealed with an elastic film, a rubber casing, which is to be punctured to push the cable through the hole, whereby the film becomes sealed against the surface of the cable due to the elasticity thereof, this way sealing the lead-through. One such known gland plate is illustrated in FIG. 1. The elastic films may be straight or, as illustrated in the figure, conical cups 1, and, in general, there are as many of them in the gland plate as is possible to accommodate on the surface thereof. Also, second seals may be disposed on the other surface of the plate in alignment with the lead-throughs, whereby double seals are obtained for the cables. In general, one of the seals is a closed cone as shown in the figure, and an open truncated cone is provided on the other side.
The cable gland plates as illustrated in FIG. 1 are very functional and effective compared with the traditional gland plugs which were used by making a proper hole for each cable and a proper plug was placed therein in order to seal the lead-through. However, even the plate illustrated in FIG. 1 is problematic. The plate is manufactured by pouring the rubber material to be used into a mold made specifically therefor. Thus, a proper mold is needed for each different plate structure. However, the applications are unique, so the sizes of the cables may vary in such a way that a lead-through of a suitable size for all cables may not be found from one plate in a specific application. In this case, two separate gland plates, or one or more traditional single-cable plugs in addition to the plate, must be used. Despite, quite a few different models of the plates must be manufactured to be able to complete even most of the applications by just one gland plate.
Attempts have been made to remedy the above-described problems by the solution according to patent application EP0245223. Therein, a set of sealing glands are supported against a rectangular frame and finally pressed together to form a tight assembly. However, the structure has been developed for heavy industrial use and is not applicable for example to pass through electric and data transfer cables in electrical enclosures and equivalent applications. The gland plate must be constructed one gland unit at a time, whereby a work project including many small cables is slow to carry out. In addition, the structure must be made heavy and large to be able to stay in the correct shape and hence tight. The pressure by the sealing units pushes the sides of the frames from the middle outwards, unless the frame is very rigid.